Creeping Terror by Justin Richards Read Free Book Online Page B

slowly.
    Maria had a bad feeling about all this. She flipped open her phone, but it showed nothing unusual. And it still wasn’t getting a signal.
    ‘Stop right there,’ the closer of the two soldiers said. ‘You put your hands up and walk slowly towards us, right?’
    ‘Oh, don’t be stupid,’ Maria said. ‘You know who we are.’
    ‘You could be anyone,’ the other soldier said.‘You’re in a restricted area without permission. Spies, that’s what you are.’
    ‘And we shoot spies,’ the first solider added.
    ‘You can’t shoot us,’ Maria said again. She was backing away now too.
    The soldier gave a short laugh. ‘Don’t you know there’s a war on?’
    ‘All right, all right,’ Knight said quickly. ‘We’ll cooperate.’ He turned slowly towards Maria, his hands in the air. ‘Won’t we, Maria.’ Facing away from the soldiers, he mouthed, ‘Run!’
    Maria smiled. ‘Of course we will.’
    Then she turned and ran. She was aware of Knight close behind her. There was a crack like a branch breaking. Then another. But it was only when a bullet thumped into the road just in front of her that Maria realised the soldiers were firing at them.
    ‘They think it’s 1943,’ Knight gasped as he caught her up.
    ‘They’re not ghosts. And those bullets are real.’
    ‘Just like Corporal Rutherford. We can’t get out of the village that way.’
    They slowed to a brisk walk.
    ‘Are they following?’ Maria asked.
    ‘Manning the checkpoint. They know we can’t get out.’
    ‘Because there are checkpoints on all the roads?’
    Knight nodded. ‘Sooner or later we’ll meet soldiers. I wonder how far the effect extends. Too far, I suspect. We’ll have to try cross-country.’
    ‘Got to find a way through the hedge first,’ Maria pointed out. ‘There must be a field or something on the other side.’ She chose a point where the hedge looked less dense and tried to force the branches apart. ‘I can’t see through,’ she said after a while. ‘It seems to go on forever.’
    There seemed to be a gate further along, close to the village sign, so they made their way towards it.
    When they got there, they found the gate didn’t open into a field or on to a track. Instead, immediately behind it there was a mass of shrubs and greenery, as if the hedge had grown along behind it.
    ‘I thought it was open country through there,’ Maria said.
    ‘So did I.’ Knight checked his phone again. ‘Still no signal. And now no way out. You know, I don’t think we’re supposed to leave this village.’
    ‘Why can’t we get out? Are we trapped?’ Maria felt a wave of panic sweep over her. She still hadn’t caught her breath after running from the soldiers and now she was hemmed in by hedges. Even the sky seemed darker and lower.
    ‘We have to find out what’s going on – what’s causing all this to happen, and to happen now.’
    ‘Then we can stop it and leave,’ Maria added.
    ‘But we’re going to need the information Ben and Rupam get from Webby and Mrs Bailey.’
    Maria sighed. ‘No way. We haven’t got a signal and we can’t find a way out. I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me that the phone box in the village is still connected.’ She felt for a moment as if she wanted just to sit down in the middle of the road and cry. ‘We could be stuck here for days before anyone realises there’s a problem and comes looking for us.’
    ‘It’s worse than that.’ Knight’s face fell into shadow as he stared across at the church tower rising above the hedges in the distance. It was no longer a broken ruin. Now it was complete again. ‘Look. To some extent the whole village has slipped back to 1943, just after it was evacuated. First Tommy and his dad saw the village before the people left. We saw them leaving. And now this …’
    Maria felt herself go cold as she began to take in the implications. ‘Just what are you saying?’
    Knight turned back to Maria. ‘I’m saying that it could be